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Old tech bread
Mesophilic:
Any of you guys make breads from non modern methods? Maybe this should be in the cooking sub forum, but it's more conceptual and not really recipe orientated.
I used to be a homebrewer and for about 10 years before I quit drinking, made amazing adult beverages. Had my own yeast ranch, worked for a university Bio Chem deprtment, and I have an AoS in culinary arts....figured how hard could it be to make bread without modern yeast?
I've been experimenting and not having good success. My fisrt attempts at collecting wild yeast ended miseably with a stinky dough that wouldn't rise after a couple of days.
Tried making a starter with just flour and water, got no where with that. Tried flour, water, and a little malted wheat for a sugar kick and still nothing came of it. That second attmept seemed to ferment, not the clean fermentation of a good batch of beer but a stinky sour fermenation, so thought maybe I fjnallh had a sour dough starter. Bread still wouldn't rise after two days.
Third attempt was essentially making a small batch of beer. Made up a mash, extracted the wort, etc. Put it jn a mason jar with a cheesecloth covering. Took a while and eventually fermented...again stinky and sour. Whatever grew in it still wouldn't raise a batch of dough.
Tried a fourth attempt at the beer starter method but dropped in some grapes. I've heard that the white film sometimes found on grapes is wild yeast. Still a no go.
So for a control, I made other batch of the beer, and added a little commercial ale yeast. It fermented as expected, with a nice clean smell. Made a batch of dough and it rose, albeit much slower than commercial bakers yeast, and the bread turned out fine.
Anyone else experiment with breads? Any input? This is really frustrating.
Stoker:
One does not yeast to make bread. Just makes it go faster.
Thanks Leroy
Del the cat:
I've used the pulp left from making plum wine to make lovely fruit buns... but I probably used wine yeast to make that.
I make cider most years with no added yeast... just pulped and squeezed apples. I expect dregs from the cider when it's racked off would probably work.
Del
Mesophilic:
Del, is the cider naturally fermented? No commercial yeast?
If it is spontaneously fermented, maybe that's the route I need to go.
I'm also thinking about geeking out, make up some plates and see if I can isolate some wild yeast. I know it's not something the ancestors would've done, but may eliminate some frustration.
Hawkdancer:
Maybe take a look at the Irish soda bread recipes. Also, try making several small batters, and set them outside in warm places to capture some wild yeasts that aren't too sour. Sooner or later, you should catch a good one. It may be too dry in your area, though. That reminds me, I have to feed my starters. King Arthur Flour sell a starter they claim descends from a New England starter that is very old, I.e., "for generations"! Also, Goldrush starter is descended from the California gold rush days of the 1800's.
Hawkdancer
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